No Tenemos Agua

Before I left for Mexico I was reading a food blog and noticed they were based in Mexico City, so I looked through some of their posts specifically about life and food in Mexico City. I noticed one called ¨What to do if your water shuts off... because it will.¨  Well I didn´t read it because I wasn´t interested and knew I would have a landlord to take care of those things, but ironically I was faced with exactly that situation yesterday.

We do HAVE water, it is in an open well underground behind the house, which a toddler would definitely fall in and drown. Seeing it also made me realize why you aren´t supposed to drink the water from the tap here.

Anyway, there is water but the pump that gets it into the house is broken, so we have had to make do without while they attempt to fix it (or just buy a new one). Luckily, I joined that gym on Monday so I can shower there, but its a bit of a pain to carry everything with me on my 45 minute walk.

Brushing your teeth from a cup... flushing the toilet with a bucket of water... etc. Its just like at the summer camp I worked at once except you have to carry that bucket up three flights of stairs. Here´s to hoping they fix it while I´m at work today!

Broccoli Avocado Tacos

On Sunday I went to a market to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables. It is an indoor market pretty close to my house with tons of people selling all kinds of produce, meat, and other random stuff. My roommates have a favorite vendor they go to, so I bought some broccoli, a tomato, an onion, a cucumber, a jalapeño, and most importantly, 2 big avocados. All of that was only around 3 dollars.

Then I realized I would definitely want some fresh tortillas. I am in Mexico after all. We went to a stand that sells 100% corn tortillas. They were pressing them fresh right there with a conveyor belt and all. A half kilo bag cost 15 pesos (around a dollar and 6 cents with today´s exchange rate).

The tortillas are delicious and last night when I got home I decided to make myself a little birthday snack (which ended up being my dinner, along with a birthday cupcake one of my roommates got me). I sliced up some of the ripe avocado and put it inside the tortillas with raw broccoli and salsa verde. They were delicious, but would definitely be better with cooked broccoli. Next time I won´t be so lazy!

Foreign Birthdays

This is the third birthday I have celebrated in a foreign country. They have all been very anti climactic. Here is a recap:

20: The first birthday I celebrated abroad was my 20th birthday in Poland. I had a large joint birthday party with a friend a few weeks earlier and my birthday fell on a weekday. Everyone was tired and not going out, but some of my friends got me a birthday cake which we ate sitting in bed in our pajamas.

21: The next year I was in Spain for my birthday. It was also on a weeknight and even though twenty one is a huge deal in the U.S., its no deal at all in Spain where the drinking age is 18. Since I could already drink there, there was no reason to make a big deal out of going out to get a drink. I think I went out for dinner with my friends and we got a couple beers, but I´m not sure. I don´t even remember my 21st birthday!

25: This year I´m in Mexico and it is a Tuesday. Last night I went out for a late dinner with my housemates and some of their friends and didn´t get to bed until midnight (way past my bed time but I do get to sleep in an extra hour here). It was not a birthday dinner, but since I went out last night I don´t really want to do much tonight. I may go out for one drink or buy a bottle of wine to share with my housemates who have been so helpful the past few days.

Aaron and I got to celebrate my birthday last Thursday with an amazing dinner at Harvest. It was one of the best meals we have had in Madison and will definitely become our go to birthday or anniversary place. Plus they have half bottles of wine which is a nice option. Aaron got me a massage, facial, and pedicure for my birthday, which was a great way to spend the day. I already need another massage after travelling and another pedicure after walking in the streets here!

While last Thursday was great, its still not the same as celebrating on your actual birthday. I woke up feeling kind of crummy, but overall have been enjoying myself at work today.

Well, the attendant at the gym remembered that today was my birthday, so that pretty much made my day!

Internship: first day

Today was an eventful first day of my internship. After a 45 minute walk to find the office (I only got lost once), my first task was to call a list of 15 people and confirm if they were coming to a round table discussion we are hosting later this week. I was pretty terrified since I didn't know them and knew they would probably have a hard time understanding me. Plus it is hard enough to hear on the phone without having to understand a different language. Also, people here talk very fast and I don´t catch all of the words. It went better than expected (ok, two of the people switched to English because they could tell I was foreign).

After that, I worked on continuing to translate the Foundation's newest publication on tax expenditures. My supervisor was impressed that I had already started translating it into English, because he doesn't have a budget to pay someone to do that (thanks to Aaron for the idea). However, I am supposed to have the whole thing read by tomorrow and I am only at the beginning of Chapter 3 (its long and there is a fourth chapter after that). I have a headache either from: translating, the altitude, or not drinking enough water this morning.

Finally came my two hour lunch break! I had my first experience with a Mexican ATM, then I went to find the gym that my supervisor goes to during his lunch break. The people at the gym were extremely nice and helpful with my limited Spanish. They waived the entrance fee and gave me a student rate, so I only have to pay $34 per month.  Then they pointed me in the direction of the supermarket so I could buy my lunch. 

I was trying to avoid eating at any dodgy places, but I couldn´t turn down the 1 dollar cup of fresh mango from a street vendor. He put chile powder, salt, and lime juice on it and it was so delicious.  I got turned around a little bit on my way, but made it with 45 minutes left to eat my lunch.

The streets here are absolutely crazy. Lots of people and cars parked everywhere, plus the cars who drive completely insanely. When someone says go two blocks, I have no idea what they mean. I didn't get lost on the way home but I did get stuck in a huge thunderstorm and had to wait it out for a bit. I was pretty soaked by the time I got back! However, I made it home alive so I consider today a success. 

Travel War Stories

Yesterday was a very long day. I got up at 4 a.m. to head to the Madison airport, took that short little flight, then spent 3 hours in terminal C at O'Hare (I walked up and down a few times deciding which salad to buy for my lunch).

When my plane to Mexico City finally started to board, it was overbooked and quickly became a seating nightmare for the flight attendants (only one spoke Spanish, so that didn't help). The only thing that made the half hour waiting for people to get seated better was an old grandpa looking man asking me if my water bottle had tequila in it. I wish.

We were already a half hour late when they said they needed to wait for a couple suitcases. Finally, we pulled out of the gate but we didn't get very far before they had us turn around to add 30 more suitcases. Ugh. At this point I was feeling really guilty because I knew someone was meeting me at the house I'm renting a room in and I certainly wouldn't be there on time. Since I left my iPhone at home, I wasn't able to send an email or text to let them know. We finally took off an hour and a half late. The flight was full of kids and 3 hours and 45 minutes is a long time to listen to babies screaming. I was so happy when we finally landed.

By the time I got through customs and my taxi driver figured out where my house was (he asked about 20 people on the street, including talking to another taxi driver through the car windows while we were both driving on the highway), it was 4:30 and I was an hour and a half late. I felt really bad, but so goes traveling. I probably will avoid flying United to Mexico again.

It was pouring rain and luckily my host drove me around in her car to show me the neighborhood and take me to the grocery store. I bought a 5 gallon container of water that I can already tell probably won't last me the week. After dinner and a shower, I went out with some of my housemates to a friend's birthday party and finally crashed at midnight.

This morning the weather is gorgeous, but since its the rainy season there will be more thunderstorms in the late afternoon. I'm sad to say my rain boots did not make it. My suitcase was 5 pounds over weight and they had to stay with Aaron. I'll be picking up a cheaper pair here as soon as I can.

Unfortunately it will be a while before I can post many pictures. I am so used to taking photos with my iPhone that I forgot I need a cord to transfer pictures from my digital camera to my computer. I remembered to charge the battery and bring the charger with me, but totally forgot about the cord until this morning when I took some pictures and realized I couldn't get them on my computer. Duh. Hopefully Aaron can send me the cord. For now you'll have to settle with this picture of me getting some sun on the roof.

I am staying in the top floor room for at least the next two weeks, so I get to use the roof for now.

Packing it up

So how and what do you pack for ten weeks living in a foreign country?

Of course I'll need the normal stuff, like clothes, makeup, and shoes. But its not all that simple! Its the rainy season in Mexico, so I need to be prepared for rain storms. That means boots are necessary, along with work shoes, sandals, and running shoes. I need casual clothes, dress clothes, going out clothes, and gym clothes. I also need some snacks. I'm not sure I'll be able to find Lara Bars and I'm not taking my chances on the lack of peanut butter.

I'm also taking probiotics, enzymes, and vitamins in hopes I don't get sick from any of the water or street food I'll likely be consuming.

I'm lucky Mexico uses the same electric outlets as we do, meaning I won't need to buy a new hair dryer or straightener, but it also means I have to fit that stuff in too! With every bag costing $25 each way, I'm determined to fit it all into one suitcase.

To fit the most as possible, I employ the lay flat and roll up method of packing. I group shirts/pants/tank tops of similar size together, lay them flat on top of each other, fold over, and roll up! This allows you to condense the clothes much more than normal folding. It also fits better into the ridges of suitcases. When we were leaving for our honeymoon, Aaron put all of his clothes in our suitcase and it was almost full. After I took them out and used the rolling method, there was more than half of the space left for my stuff!

The rain boots are a problem because they are pretty large. I am experimenting with stuffing my boots full of stuff. Right now they are holding all of my underwear, a pair of tights, my bathing suit (two bottoms), two pajama shirts, 8 pairs of socks, and 4 sports bras. Impressive!

Almost everything is fitting so far, and hopefully I'm not over the weight limit. My flight takes off at 6 a.m. tomorrow, so my next post will be from Mexico City.

Long Distance

As my bags and piles of clothes and supplies begin to take over our apartment, it has finally settled in for Aaron and I that we really won't be spending the next ten weeks together. We started out as a long distance relationship, but we never went more than two weeks without seeing each other. I wish Aaron could come with me and we could explore together, but unfortunately one of us has to get paid.

Spending the summer in Mexico without Aaron will be challenging, but we have some advantages on our side. First of all, Mexico City and Wisconsin are in the same time zone, which will make it easier to Skype with each other at convenient hours.

Secondly, flights to Mexico are cheaper than flights to places like Europe or Africa, so Aaron will be able to come visit me. The advantageous exchange rate also means I'll save money on living expenses over the summer, so more money can be set aside for Aaron to visit.

We are lucky to live in the era of the internet and video chatting. We can email, send photos, and call each others cell phones. We can even send text messages through Skype to keep each other up to date when a call isn't practical.

Aaron will be working a lot of overtime and I'll be focusing on learning as much Spanish as possible. We will both miss each other a ton, but we agree that its important for us to become the best people we can be and an opportunity to work abroad is part of that for me. Plus, just think how happy we'll be in August when I'm back.

Always look on the bright side of life!

Summer Internship

As most of you know, I will be spending the majority of my summer break doing an internship in Mexico City. I leave Saturday morning for an early flight to Chicago, then straight on to Mexico City.

My graduate school, the La Follette School of Public Affairs, does not require summer internships, but they do offer some financial aid for students doing internships outside of Madison.  This was the perfect combination for me.  I liked not feeling too much pressure to get an internship or risk not graduating. All of the pressure came from myself.  Although I could have worked full time all summer at my current part time job, I think an internship is an important resume builder and good experience. For a while now I have felt that not doing an internship during undergrad was a mistake and I didn't want to make the same mistake twice!

Aaron and I made an effort to save money throughout the year to make an unpaid internship financially possible, but knowing some funding would come from my program was essential to me seeking internships that were further away or had potentially high costs. 

I applied for a few early deadline internships, but wasn't excited about any of them until my internship with Fundacion Ethos came up. A recent (as of last weekend!) graduate of my program did this internship last summer and she had a wonderful time. All of the aspects of the internship appealed to me: small staff, hands on, Mexico City, poverty and social policy research, and using Spanish. It was also helpful to know someone who had already been there and had nothing but good things to say. Ethos was specifically looking for a La Follette student because they had a great experience with the student from last summer, so I have some big shoes to fill.

My internship will be with the International Poverty Observatory area of Ethos. You can read more about the organization and internship here: Ethos Internship Program.

I'm very excited to spend time in Mexico City, a place I have always wanted to visit.  Of course I have worries that come with traveling to any foreign country. Will I understand anyone? Will they understand my badly accented Spanish? Will I get lost (without my iPhone!)? But these worries are part of the things that make traveling exciting and leave you feeling accomplished. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Here are a couple photos from our Memorial Day weekend. A lot of it was spent in the car, which I didn't take pictures of. My phone wore itself out searching for service in northern Michigan, so I didn't get many pictures of our family gathering. Only these few of Aaron and I in the woods:

 

On Monday we got home just in time for a huge evening thunderstorm. Luckily it was over in around an hour and we went to a park a few blocks away to sit on the dock and enjoy the calm lake that everyone had deserted. We saw multiple muskrats, ducks, and huge fish jumping out of the water.

Henderson Castle: Dutch Room

Our room at the Henderson Castle was the Dutch Room. It was the original Mrs. Henderson's room.  It is one of the larger rooms in the house and was decorated with beautiful light wood and blue colors. The uniqueness of the bathroom, the walk in closet, and the large windows all made it even better. The light up floor was entertaining and made a nice night light. 

Good morning.

Theres the center of the light up floor. The other lights went all the way around the perimeter of the room.  We did have a run in with a little yippy dog barking while its owners were out eating dinner or something, it was very annoying but luckily it was quiet all night and they left before we could find out who they were.